| BenefitsLink Welfare Plans Newsletter |   |
October 4, 2004
Today's sponsor: WorldatWork
(Click on company name or banner to learn more.)
Check out the WorldatWork publications in our Bookstore! WorldatWork, a not-for-profit professional association, is a leading publisher of compensation, benefits and total rewards information. With a portfolio of books, reports, survey briefs, booklets and online learning programs, WorldatWork creates, markets and distributes publications that are critical to improved organizational performance. WorldatWork has contributed to the education and development of business professionals worldwide since 1955.
(Please visit our sponsors. We try to make sure their products and services will be of interest to you. Thanks! --Editor)
Text of Rev. Rul. 2004-98 to Halt Abusive Employment Tax Arrangements Involving Employee Parking (PDF)
4 pages. Excerpt: "Issue: Whether, under the facts described below, the exclusion from gross income under ยง 132(a)(5) applies to payments from an employer to employees characterized as 'reimbursements' by the employer." (Internal Revenue Service)
IRS Eliminates 'Double Dip' in Employee Parking Benefits
Excerpt: "Employers cannot provide employees with tax-free reimbursement of parking expenses if the employees paid for the same expenses through pretax contributions, such as salary reduction, the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department said Friday." (Business Insurance)
Health Insurance Cost Comparison Chart for Popular Plans in 3 States and 2 Private Companies (PDF)
Excerpt: "A key issue in the controversy over the 2005 health-care package for [Kentucky] state and school workers is how the state's benefits compare to other states and to private companies. This chart provides one measure of the state health-care package, but because of variations in plans exact comparisons are difficult. The chart draws on the most popular health plan for each state or company." (The Courier-Journal)
Text of Rev. Proc. 2004-60: Annual Update on Per Diem Allowances for Business Travel (PDF)
20 pages. Excerpt: "This revenue procedure updates Rev. Proc. 2003-80 ... by providing rules under which the amount of ordinary and necessary business expenses of an employee for lodging, meal, and incidental expenses or for meal and incidental expenses incurred while traveling away from home are deemed substantiated ... when a payor (the employer, its agent, or a third party) provides a per diem allowance under a reimbursement or other expense allowance arrangement to pay for the expenses." (Internal Revenue Service)
Firms, Workers Are Paying More for Fewer Health Care Benefits
Excerpt: "Rising costs threaten the bedrock of the American health care system: employment-based insurance. To offset years of double-digit inflation in health coverage, employers have shifted more of the costs to workers. Now, workers and employers feel stretched to the limits of what they can afford. Americans expect the situation to worsen, surveys show, and forecasts of health care spending support that outlook." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Small Firms Face Daunting Hunt for Affordable Health Plans
Excerpt: "Small firms also have to balance the need to cut costs with that of keeping insurance attractive so workers will sign up in numbers that meet insurers' quotas for offering small-group policies." (CBS.MW via Investors.com)
Is the TPA Industry Growing or Shrinking? Comments on the State and Perception of the Industry
Excerpt: "People often ask for some statistical tally of whether the TPA industry is growing or shrinking. They often think that counting the number of firms would be a good measure. It is not. The first step, for your own sanity & credibility is to frequently remind yourself of the caution that every number or statistic relating to employment, benefits, TPAs, health, insurance, etc. etc. has a built-in 1,000% distortion factor purely due to differences in perceptions of vocabulary meanings." (Society of Professional Benefit Administrators)
Working Families Tax Relief Act (H.R. 1308) Includes Technical Corrections Impacting Pension Plans
Excerpt: "Legislation approved by the House and Senate on September 23, 2004 that would extend a series of expiring tax benefits for individuals and businesses also contains a number of technical corrections substantively affecting pension and benefit plans and extends the mental health parity provisions of ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code." (CCH Incorporated)
Schwarzenegger Vetoes Four Reimportation Bills, Advocates Plan to Negotiate Drug Discounts
Excerpt: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Thursday -- the last day of the legislative session -- vetoed four bills addressing the importation of lower-cost pres.cription drugs from Canada, the New York Times reports (Broder, New York Times, 10/1)." (California Healthline)
House Committee Approves Bill to Monitor Pres.cription Drugs Electronically
Excerpt: "The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday approved a bill to allow electronic tracking of pres.cription drugs dispensed both within and outside a state, CQ Today reports. However, some panel members were concerned that the bill does not protect patient privacy." (iHealth Beat)
Bush Or Kerry: Whose Health Care Plan Is Better for Your Business?
Excerpt: "While Bush's free-market approach appeals to some business owners, others favor Kerry's health safety net." (Baltimore Business Journal via bizjournals.com; one-time registration required)
Bush & Kerry: a Big Divide on Health Care, Social Security, Investments and Saving
Excerpt: "Judging from the economic proposals that the two candidates have offered, and in President Bush's case from those he has actually carried out during his first term, the fundamental economic issue of this election involves the respective roles of work and saving -- of labor and capital -- in the economy we seek to create. Do we value and encourage one, or the other, or both?" (The New York Review of Books)
Campaign 2004: the Big Issues: Kerry vs. Bush on Health Care
Excerpt: "The faults in the American health care system become more glaring with each passing year. Large numbers of Americans have no health insurance at all, and those who do have insurance are faced with soaring premiums that threaten to make coverage unaffordable for individuals, families and employers. The two presidential candidates have responded to these problems with health plans that differ markedly in scope and philosophy." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Senate Bill Would Tighten Controls on Purchasing by Hospitals
Excerpt: "The chairman and the ranking member of the Senate antitrust subcommittee jointly introduced a bill [October 1] that would give the government new powers to regulate the sale of medical products to hospitals, a part of the health care economy where numerous abuses have been uncovered in the last two years." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Work and Family Benefits: Assessing Their Value in the Workplace
Excerpt: "October is National Work & Family month, and there is plenty to celebrate as the 20-year work-life movement enters its third decade. As the economy continues to rebound, employers are again focusing on using work-life initiatives to create a working environment that will attract and retain employees. Today, however, work-life means far more; it requires the development of a culture, policies and programs that are geared to providing quality of life for all persons in the workforce." (Employee Benefit News)
MetDESK Program Provides Free Estate Planning for Workers with Special Kids
Excerpt: "Employees who have children or other dependents with special needs must make many important financial decisions, some of which involve their benefits. If they make the wrong choices because they -- or their employer -- are unfamiliar with inheritance laws, it can have devastating economic effects, says Nadine Vogel, vice president of marketing for MetLife and founder of the company's Division of Estate Planning for Special Kids (MetDESK)." (Employee Benefit News)
Links to Items on Executive Comp, Benefits in General
Implementing Section 404: a Practical Approach to Compliance With the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Excerpt: "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that all public companies do something that they probably should have been doing anyway: assign the CEO and the CFO authority over the company's internal controls and the opportunity to demonstrate competent and transparent governance, not just to the SEC but to shareholders and the financial community in general. While some public companies may previously have managed with less-than-stellar internal controls, those days are over." (The CPA Journal)
Leaders for US Airways' Pilots to Revisit Deal on Pay Cuts
Excerpt: "Leaders of the US Airways pilots' union will meet [Oct. 5] in Pittsburgh to resume debate over a tentative agreement that would grant $300 million in wage and benefit cuts to the airline. Union officials failed to agree at a two-day meeting over the weekend in Charlotte, N.C., on whether to send the deal to members for a vote." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
Pilots Reach Tentative Deal with US Airways on Pay Cuts and Retirement Plan Contributions
Excerpt: "US Airways and its pilots' union reached tentative agreement ... on $300 million in annual wage and benefit cuts, after weeks of debate inside the union over whether to grant concessions to the troubled airline. The deal, which is worth $1.8 billion over the next six years, includes annual pay cuts of 18 percent, .... It would also reduce the company's contribution to pilots' retirement benefits, and require pilots to fly more hours a month for the same pay." (The New York Times; one-time registration required)
New Benefits Technology Saves Time and Also Enhances Employee Satisfaction
Excerpt: "As open enrollment winds down, many HR-benefit managers' thoughts will turn to the system changes they might want for next year. While there's not much that's brand-new on the technology solutions shelves, they will find improved versions of everything from Internet portals to debit cards to databases." (Employee Benefit News)
Study Shows Six Out of 10 Companies Outsource Employee Benefit Functions
Excerpt: "Recent findings from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans lend credence to the notion that benefits professionals are doing more with less. Especially in larger organizations, which much of the time hire one benefits staffer for every few hundred or even every few thousand employees, outsourcing in particular appears to have made the difference between effectiveness and overwork." (Employee Benefit News)
ABC Comments in Letter to IRS on Notice 2004-55 Regarding Employee Stock Purchase Plans (PDF)
5 pages. Excerpt: "We are writing in response to Notice 2004-55, which addresses employee stock purchase plans under Code section 423 ('ESPPs'). In that Notice, the IRS asked for comments on whether the final regulations on ESPPs should be amended. We encourage the IRS to update the regulations and comment below on several issues raised in the Notice and three more issues not mentioned in the Notice." (American Benefits Council)
Hewitt Federal Legislation Quick Guide [updated September 28, 2004]
Excerpt: "Hewitt's Federal Legislation Quick Guide provides short updates on federal legislation that is currently under active consideration by Congress or has recently been enacted into law regarding health and welfare benefit plans, retirement plans, and human resources and employment law." (Hewitt Associates)
The USA TODAY Lifetime Social Security and Medicare Benefits Calculator: Assumptions and Methods (PDF)
Excerpt: "C. Eugene Steuerle and Adam Carasso of the Urban Institute helped USA TODAY design a web-based retirement benefits calculator that appeared on the paper's website October 4, 2004. The calculator estimates the lifetime value of Social Security and Medicare benefits and compares them against the lifetime value of taxes for these two programs. Included is the new Medicare pres.cription drug program. Not included are estimates of the benefits and taxes for the Disability Insurance program." (Urban Institute)
Greenspan Worried About Congressional Actions on Expensing of Stock Options
Excerpt: "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Friday said he was 'deeply concerned' Congress would try to thwart efforts by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to require expensing of stock options." (Reuters via The Washington Post; one-time registration required)
Overview: Employee Stock Option Valuation: New Source of Litigation Risk for Auditors
Excerpt: "On March 31, 2004, FASB released the Exposure Draft on Share-Based Payment, an Amendment of SFAS 123 and 95, requiring companies to expense the value of employee stock options that they issue. The exposure draft recommends using a 'lattice model' to determine the value of options for most public companies, and establishes guidelines for their construction." (The CPA Journal)
Newly Posted Events
Fiduciary Check-Up
Nationwide on October 14, 2004
presented by International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
Newly Posted Press Releases
PBGC Extends Hours Of Customer Contact Center
(Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC))
The Segal Company Celebrates 65th Anniversary
(The Segal Company)
PERFORMAX Forges Into Northern California Market
(PERFORMAX)
U.S. Labor Department Extends Annual Reports Deadline After Severe Storms Hit Ohio
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Chicago)
U.S. Labor Department Extends Annual Reports Deadline After Hurricane Ivan Hits Georgia
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)
U.S. Labor Department Extends Annual Reports Deadline for Pennsylvania due to Tropical Depressions Frances and Ivan
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)
U.S. Labor Department Extends Annual Reports Deadline After Severe Storms Hit West Virginia
(U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.)
Treasury and IRS Issue Ruling To Halt Abusive Employment Tax Arrangements Involving Employee Parking
(U.S. Department of Treasury)
CMS Announces Demonstration Project For Beneficiaries With High Medical Costs
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS))
The City of Coppell, Texas Announces Savings in Annual Health Care Spending Amidst National Surge with Help from Partner WinningHabits
(City of Coppell, Texas)
Newly Posted or Renewed Job Openings
Retirement Plan Conversion Specialist
for Great-West Life & Annuity
in CO
Client Services Manager
for Transamerica
in IL
Defined Contribution Plan Administrator
for Oxford Associates in Baltimore, MD
in MD
Retirement Plans Advisor
for FedEx Corporation
in TN
Manager of Employee Benefit Services
for Bland Garvey Eads Medlock + Deppe P.C.
in TX
Retirement Plan Consultant
for Metavante Corporation
in CA
Compliance Team Analyst
for Administaff
in TX
Handy Links:
- View Today's Active Message Threads
- Search BenefitsLink
- Using the Web for Employee Benefits Research
- Employee Benefits Library
Copyright 2004 BenefitsLink.com, Inc.; except that you can reprint this newsletter in full (if you also include this boilerplate part) without obtaining our permission.
Published by:
BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
https://benefitslink.com/about.html
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park FL 32789
(407) 644-4146
Fax: (407) 644-2151
Editor and Publisher: David Rhett Baker, J.D.
Housekeeping: